Tuesday, March 24, 2009

My Soapbox -- Ban Mandatory Spay/Neuter and Other Anti-Pet Legislation

Over the last several years there has been an increasing wave of proposed bills that seek to restrict the rights of all breeders and fanciers.

I am a huge believer in responsible dog ownership and "ban the deed" as opposed to any sort of mandatory legislation. For example, the city in North America which has the lowest kill rate in their shelters is Calgary -- they have no "mandatory this or that" legislation at all but a very active ownership education program.

There are problems but they need to be addressed individually. Addressed as a blanket statement the problem won't get handled, just moved out of that particular city, county, state or nation. What all this mandatory legislation does is ban the honest, usually show breeder. This is the person who does all necessary tests on his or her dogs, screens owners carefully, is always willing to take a dog back and truly cares about the future of his or her breed.

An excellent article appeared recently in the LA Times -- if the below link doesn't work, it was written by Judith Lewis in the Opinion Section titled The Obama Family Dog.

www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-lewis15-2009mar15,0,7144557.story

I really wonder about the individuals behind this wave of proposed legislation. Do they want us to have pets? Or maybe they think we would be better off in a world where no one ever owned an animal? Makes me really wonder.

Best, Sandy

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